A trio of fresh reviews for Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS.

Photo: Scott R. Kline

MIRABILE DICTU enjoys their first Ellen Klages experience.

In  Ellen Klages’ dazzling new collection of short stories, WICKED WONDERS, she crafts one perfect sentence after another.

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Klages’ perceptive stories cross genre.  Are they miniature fantasies?  Magic realism?  Retold fairy tales?  A little bit of all three, plus some smart homages to Ray Bradbury.

Klages is an evocative chronicler of childhood.

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I loved these stories.   I am so glad to have discovered this writer.

A. C. Wise on her eponymous site includes the collection among Women to Read: Where to Start: June 2017.

Last (for now), but not least, my recommended starting place for Ellen Klages’ work is Singing on a Star, a World Fantasy Award finalist originally appearing in Firebird Soaring, and included in her new collection, WICKED WONDERS. In fact, it’s tempting to recommend the whole collection as a starting point, since many themes echo across the stories  – childhood, friendship, loss, and magic. 

THE BOOK THAT praises the volume.

Ellen Klages writes stories that I find myself wishing I had come up with. She has a wild imagination and was able to pull me along with her.

Overall, I loved the way that they would draw me in and at the end leave me thinking about them long after I had moved on to another book. My favorite story was Singing on a Star. I loved the Alice in Wonderland feel of it and the creepy vibe that left me with goosebumps at the end.

Ellen Klages’ homepage has been completely revamped. Be sure to check it out.

For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story